ZOOtech is the manufacturer of DVD-Extra Studio. DVD- Extra Studio allows DVD authors to create seriously interactive DVD content, which makes possible games such as the wildly popular UK DVD version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Our man, Chris, finds out why ZOOtech was honored this year with the "Innovation Award" and the "Overall Winner" of the Sheffield Business Awards, and what this technology means for gamers (at least the bits that aren't still secret).

Meet Xbox 2 is the premier comic of our new weekly game related strip, twoplayer comics, which will appear every Sunday from here until we run out of good ideas. With E3 coming down the pipe, there\'s still time to get a few shots in about the possible form factors the different systems might take before actual details come out to mess up our fun. Check it out at http://comics.gamesfirst.com.

We here at GF! are being bold today; we're launching a series of comics based on video games called twoplayer comics, even though sites like Penny Arcade and vgcats.com already keep things interesting. Nuts, huh? Aaron, co-creator of twoplayer, tries to explain what the hell he was thinking when he created a comic with the initials T.P.

You've just plunked down 50 hard earned dollars and purchased World of Warcraft. You're looking forward to logging some quality time playing the game. Do you know when you're putting in too much time into the game? Gary Wong, recovering WoW addict, saw the warning signs and has written a cautionary tale.

So you want a PSP, but your wife says, "No." Such is the predicament for many grown men eagerly waiting for Thursday's launch of the PSP. "But wait," you say, "isn't the PSP an all-in-one marvel of modern technology that pretty much does it all? That huge feature set MUST help us convince our significant others how much the unit will benefit by having a PSP..." Check out Jason Frank's valiant attempt in this editorial.

Behind every successful video game are a team of developers who work long, hard hours to create the best product they can for you, the gamer. When those developers work too long and too hard without just compensation, EA_Spouse voices their concerns. We talk to her about the mainstream reaction to her article, EA's recent market moves, and GameWatch, her new project to illuminate quality of life issues in the game development industry.

Gamers praise developers for the increasing visual authenticity found in video games. What happens when troubled individuals find too much authenticity in the games they play and take it to an extreme? How much responsibility should the gaming industry shoulder? Should it even be held to any amount of culpability?

Using many of the same storytelling conventions as the movie industry, it's not surprising that game plots have been turning up on film pretty consistently these days; few, as of yet, are really any good. What makes it so hard to turn a good game into a good movie? Is one medium really incompatible with the other? Chris doesn't think so, and he explains his views in this excellent and informed perspective of game-to-movie adaptations. If you don't want to lose faith in the movie industry's ability to make competent movies out of what should be excellent source material, this is an article you need to read before catching films like Alone in the Dark.

Since P2P has become ubiquitous on the Internet, it has mostly been associated with game, movie and music piracy, which has somewhat prevented P2P technologies from being used to their full potential to enhance your gaming experience. Our own Wayne Chang, who is also CEO of AceGain and ByteSwarm, which provide download functionality for GF!, takes a look at the promise of P2P technologies, focusing on ByteSwarm, the technology he knows best, as an example of potential benefits we could see from safe, secure P2P networks.

After nearly a decade squaring off in the home console arena, Nintendo and Sony prepare to wage battle in the increasingly lucrative handheld market. Will Sony's sleek PSP do the unthinkable and slay Nintendo's two-headed DS? It's too early to tell, but it's never too early to speculate.

We welcome back Monica, who returns valorous with a great contemplation of what it means to lose. All gamers, hardcore or casual, are well familiar with the feeling of getting stomped, splattered, shot, stymied, shut out, and stood up. Whether it's getting trashed in online multiplayer matches, or getting repeatedly busted up against that third boss, we've all come to some understanding of defeat. Click the details link below for Monica's treatment, The Art of Losing.

Congratulations to Damon Shaw, the winner of our Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines contest. And for those of you who are not Damon Shaw, you might want to get over to the contest page to see the latest offerings. We're going to give away over 20 prize packages next month, and you know you can't miss that.

How important can great storytelling in a game be? Characters we care about? Plots we actually want to know the ending to? Sounds like a book or something. Take a moment to find out why Aaron connects Advent Rising with art in video games, free speech, and apparently an issue he has with remembering things.

With less than three days until Christmas, it's crunch time for Santa and his helpers. We're all gearing up for big feasts, big trees, and for big game marathons with friends and family on an upcoming winter day. Still kids deep down inside, we're also gearing up for the Christmas morning tree rush, in which the grown men and women (or at least me) here at GF! give up adulthood for a moment and act like children again. What's the number one item we're hoping to find under the tree? Be sure to read Part I and II, posted over the last week or so, and then find out what's really got us hungry here in Part III. After you get done with that, relax, kick off your shoes, and have yourself a wonderful holiday, and a very merry Christmas!